Clark Peterson Legendary Games, Necromancer Games |
Kevin A RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 8 aka NJKrosse |
Sean McGowan RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32, 2011 Top 4 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka DankeSean |
Neil Spicer Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut |
Brian Hoffman RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 aka Madgael |
gbonehead Owner - House of Books and Games LLC , Marathon Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7 |
Chef's Slaad |
Actually, no. Everyone has their own individual style. Horror and sickness is only one path of monstrous design. ;-)
True, but that may lead to something like this
Tom Phillips Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4 |
Joshua Kitchens RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7 aka Draconas |
Seth White RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 |
I'm starting to feel akin to some ancient gladiator waiting for the verdict of the mob if we shall die or live to fight another day.
Are you not entertained?! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!
Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant.
Waiting in anticipation for Monster Fight Club to begin. . .
Jim Groves Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 4 |
Joshua Kitchens wrote:I'm starting to feel akin to some ancient gladiator waiting for the verdict of the mob if we shall die or live to fight another day.
Are you not entertained?! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!
Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant.
Waiting in anticipation for Monster Fight Club to begin. . .
Absolutely, and I put on my 'game face' for this round. I'm not going down easy.
Alexander H MacLeod IV RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16, 2010 Top 4 aka Alexander MacLeod |
Nicolas Quimby RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 aka Hydro |
Being one of potentially 1000 individuals cut was suspense enough for me. I can't imagine being one of only 32, and having a 50% shot at moving on. 3% is a wild dream, 50% is even odds. Good luck everyone! Err...on second thought, break a leg...or tentacle...prehensile tail...etc.
At the moment I'm just eager to see what the judges thought of my critter, and to have the public see it for themselves.
Judgment won't come for another week, and by then I feel like I'll probably have a good idea whether the voters are digging it or not.
Occorse, if that day comes and I feel like my entry is on the fence, then yea- definitely a lot of nail biting.
caith |
Seth White wrote:Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant.
Waiting in anticipation for Monster Fight Club to begin...
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant."
Oh, and float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! Rumble, young Superstar, rumble!
Hmm...Latin: the secret ingredient for RPG Superstar success?
Scott Williams 16 Dedicated Voter Season 7 |
Scott Williams 16 Dedicated Voter Season 7 |
Dennis Baker Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16 |
caith wrote:Being one of potentially 1000 individuals cut was suspense enough for me. I can't imagine being one of only 32, and having a 50% shot at moving on. 3% is a wild dream, 50% is even odds. Good luck everyone! Err...on second thought, break a leg...or tentacle...prehensile tail...etc.At the moment I'm just eager to see what the judges thought of my critter, and to have the public see it for themselves.
Judgment won't come for another week, and by then I feel like I'll probably have a good idea whether the voters are digging it or not.
Occorse, if that day comes and I feel like my entry is on the fence, then yea- definitely a lot of nail biting.
The big thing is tomorrow we see what the pros say about our stuff and what the competition is. I get the feeling voting will follow the judges fairly closely but I might be wrong. It will certainly be an uphill battle if you get savaged by the pros.
Trevor Gulliver RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8 aka Tarren Dei |
Sean McGowan RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32, 2011 Top 4 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka DankeSean |
The big thing is tomorrow we see what the pros say about our stuff and what the competition is. I get the feeling voting will follow the judges fairly closely but I might be wrong. It will certainly be an uphill battle if you get savaged by the pros.
While that is frequently the case, there are always those rare (and fairly funny) times when the voting public quite strenuously disagrees with an item that the judges pan. 'Blink Dog Nation' from the first years contest being the archetypal example. There's always the argument that people swing in favor of things like this because a judge came down on it like a type of bricks and they're feeling sympathetic/contrary/trying to pull some kind of american idol esque 'vote for the worst' movement off, but I think that tends to be justification after the fact that's overcomplicating things. People like different things. Me, I came in to late as an observer in 2008 to have voted Blink, but I would have if I'd been here in time. Not because Clark hated the country and wanted to see blink dogs skewered on sticks and fading in and out of existence as they roasted over a fire, but because the country in question was pretty awesome and well-done.
Now that said, I'm not sure I can think of a case where the opposite has happened: where the judges love an entry and the voting public doesn't put it through. I'm sure not every entry that has gotten a 'Recommended for advancement' consensus has advanced to the next round, but the entries that the judges clearly go gaga over generally wind up getting the public acclaim as well.
Trevor Gulliver RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8 aka Tarren Dei |
Nicolas Quimby RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 aka Hydro |
I feel like the ones which advance against the judge's favor are usually really cool, fun ideas which nevertheless fall apart under criticism because they're hard to fit into an actual game. But that doesn't keep voters from thinking it's awesome, and I think a lot of people vote based on a knee-jerk "that's awesome!" reaction.
And, really, if you can get that kind of reaction, then you can get people to do the work for you. The blink dog tribes would have been hard to pull off well in my game, but reading the entry made me want to pull it off, and got me to start thinking of ways to fill in the blanks left by the author.
Dennis Baker Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16 |
While that is frequently the case, there are always those rare (and fairly funny) times when the voting public quite strenuously disagrees with an item that the judges pan.
Yeah, It's definitely possible. That's what makes it exciting. Even if the judges bless your entry there is risk.
Neil Spicer Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut |
Jeff Spencer RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 aka carborundum |
Eric Hindley Contributor , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Boxhead |
Dennis Baker Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16 |
RPG Superstar secret #729 - Make sure you appeal to both audiences...i.e., the judges (to earn their recommendations) and to the public (to earn their actual votes).
This is why my creature is called the "Ebon Monkey of Death*"... Clark seems to like Ebon and Monkeys so I figured I had one vote!
Jeff Spencer RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 aka carborundum |
Oh no! I went for Half Pony too - guess that's the common theme for this round :-)
"I must say, I do like Toospankta Monkey with the My Little Pony..."
<ducks and covers>
Goodtree |
Neil Spicer wrote:RPG Superstar secret #729 - Make sure you appeal to both audiences...i.e., the judges (to earn their recommendations) and to the public (to earn their actual votes).This is why my creature is called the "Ebon Monkey of Death*"... Clark seems to like Ebon and Monkeys so I figured I had one vote!
** spoiler omitted **
I hope that you didn't have to ruin the pony for nothing.
Dennis Baker Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16 |
Mike Kimmel Developer , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 |
Richard A. Hunt RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8 aka AWizardInDallas |
Neil Spicer wrote:RPG Superstar secret #729 - Make sure you appeal to both audiences...i.e., the judges (to earn their recommendations) and to the public (to earn their actual votes).This is why my creature is called the "Ebon Monkey of Death*"... Clark seems to like Ebon and Monkeys so I figured I had one vote!
** spoiler omitted **
Now, if only that monkey could learn to knit with clanking cymbals a' clangin'. :)
Greg A. Vaughan Frog God Games |
Hi Guys, I just finished my review of the last of your monsters and just wanted to say thanks. Those are some really cool ideas in there and yes...a lot of sickness. Actually it seems like gross may have been the primary theme this year; probably half or more of the entries had some major gross-out factor going on, which is a positive in my book. So kudos to you on that. And the non-gross entries (who apparently didn't get the memo) were really original and cool too, so I don't think that not going gross hurt you in any way. So congratulations to all, and it was an honor to serve as a guest judge for the monster round. You all deserve a round of applause for the works that you put out there.
Greg
Clark Peterson Legendary Games, Necromancer Games |
I'm with Greg. I've finished all my reviews.
I used my normal "grading" system I have used in prior years.
Here was my rubrick:
Initial Impression: Initial thoughts.
Concept (name, overall design choices, design niche, playability/usability, challenge): A
Details.
Execution (quality of writing, hook, theme, organization, use of proper format, world neutral, quality of mandatory content—description, summary of powers): A
Details.
Tilt (did it grab me, do I want to use one in an adventure?): A
Details.
Overall: A+
Details.
Recommendation: I DO/DO NOT recommend this creature advance.
Neil Spicer Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut |
Hi Guys, I just finished my review of the last of your monsters and just wanted to say thanks. Those are some really cool ideas in there and yes...a lot of sickness....
But the real question, Greg, is whether or not you saw character-killing potential in any of them, right? Heh. ;-)
Matthew Morris RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8 , Star Voter Season 6 |
Well I'm comfortable with my <redacted>.
That said, I'm going to read the judges comments then go away for a week. I've poor impulse control and less common sense (see wives, ex-) so I don't want to shoot myself in the foot with a snarky comment.
I also expect at most a C from Clark, and not just because of the half Sebastian template.
Jeff Spencer RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 aka carborundum |
Seth White RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 |
Mike Welham Contributor, RPG Superstar 2012 , Star Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 9 |
Jim Groves Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 4 |
Joshua Kitchens RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7 aka Draconas |
The monsters are coming! The monsters are coming!!
If you go down in the forums today
You're sure of a big surprise.If you go down in the forums today
You'd better go in disguise.
For ev'ry critter that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the monsters have their picnic.
Nick Waln RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32 aka Coldfire |
James Martin RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 |
taig wrote:The monsters are coming! The monsters are coming!!If you go down in the forums today
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down in the forums today
You'd better go in disguise.For ev'ry critter that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the monsters have their picnic.
Somewhere Anne Murray just paused from gnawing upon a human femur to look up and sniff the sky. She hasn't been summoned yet, but she will. Soon, she will.
Sean McGowan RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32, 2011 Top 4 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 aka DankeSean |